ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – After a cold-shooting first half, the College of Saint Benedict basketball team came out hot in the second half and used a big third quarter to beat Carleton 68-52 Saturday afternoon to wrap up the regular season in Claire Lynch.
The win – coupled with a Gustavus win over Concordia – leaves CSB and the Gusties tied in the MIAC standings with 11-7 records, but Saint Benedict holds the tiebreaker thanks to a pair of wins over Gustavus in the regular season. So CSB earns the No. 4 seed in the MIAC Tournament and hosts the No. 5 Gusties at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 19.
St. Thomas finished undefeated in conference play in the regular season, and Augsburg is second. Both have first-round byes. Third-seeded Bethel hosts No. 6 Saint Mary's Tuesday in the other first-round matchup.
For the first half on Saturday, Carleton (3-22, 0-18) looked as though it was going to play spoiler in CSB's regular-season finale. The Knights led 7-0 to start, and pushed their lead to eight on a three, then 10 a short time later.
Alex Johnson scored and
Shae Olsen hit a free throw to cut the gap to five, 16-11, after one quarter, but the Knights went on a 7-0 run to start the second and take a 23-11 lead.
Carleton led 27-16 with 5:21 left in the half, but
Maddie Schmitz hit a pair of free throws and
McKenzie Holgate added one, and Schmitz scored the final five points of the half to make it a three-point game, 27-24, heading into halftime.
Saint Benedict extended its run to 15 points thanks to a 7-0 run to start the third quarter to take a 31-27 lead. A layup by Schmitz made it an eight-point game, and a three from
Megan Thompson and a pair of free throws and a jumper from
Sidney Schiffler pushed CSB's lead to double digits, 45-33, for the first time. CSB outscored Carleton 29-6 in the third quarter and took a 53-33 lead into the fourth. Carleton tried to make a run in the fourth, but CSB pushed its lead to 23 early in the quarter thanks to a three from Schiffler, and the team cruised from there.
Schiffler scored a career-high 20 points to lead CSB on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and 4-of-5 from long range. She also went 4-for-4 from the line. Schmitz also had 20 points and five rebounds, and Johnson led the team with seven rebounds. After shooting 23 percent from the field in the first quarter and 30.8 in the second, CSB shot 78.6 percent from the field in the third and 42 for the game. The team went 17-for-25 from the line and had 32 rebounds and 15 turnovers.
Samantha Cooke led Carleton with 19 points and Jill Yanai had 11 rebounds and six assists. The Knights shot 40.7 percent from the field, went 5-for-13 from the line and had 35 rebounds and 22 turnovers.
CSB looks to beat the Gusties a third time this season after winning a close game at home in December and pulling away for a road win in January.
